Chats on Old Furniture Part 3

[Ill.u.s.tration: ELIZABETHAN BEDSTEAD. DATED 1593.

Carved oak, ornamented in marquetry.

(Height, 7 ft. 4 in.; length, 7 ft. 11 in.; width, 5 ft. 8 in.)

(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

Under Queen Elizabeth new impulses stirred the nation, and a sumptuous Court set the fas.h.i.+on in greater luxury of living. Gloriana, with her merchant-princes, her fleet of adventurers on the high seas, and the pomp and circ.u.mstance of her troop of foreign lovers, brought foreign fas.h.i.+ons and foreign art into commoner usage. The growth of luxurious habits in the people was eyed askance by her statesmen; "England spendeth more in wines in one year," complained Cecil, "than it did in ancient times in four years." The chimney-corner took the place of the open hearth; chimneys were for the first time familiar features in middle-cla.s.s houses. The insanitary rush-floor was superseded by wood, and carpets came into general use. Even pillows, deemed by the hardy yeomanry as only fit "for women in child-bed," found a place in the ma.s.sive and elaborately carved Elizabethan bedstead.

The ill.u.s.tration of the fine Elizabethan bedstead (on p. 66) gives a very good idea of what the domestic furniture was like in the days immediately succeeding the Spanish Armada. It is carved in oak; with columns, tester, and headboard showing the cla.s.sic influence. It is ornamented in marquetry, and bears the date 1593.

All over England were springing up town halls and fine houses of the trading-cla.s.ses, and manor houses and palaces of the n.o.bility worthy of the people about to establish a formidable position in European politics. Hatfield House, Hardwick Hall, Audley End, Burleigh, Knole, and Longleat, all testify to the Renaissance which swept over England at this time. Stately terraces with Italian gardens, long galleries hung with tapestries, and lined with carved oak chairs and elaborate cabinets were marked features in the days of the new splendour. Men's minds, led by Raleigh, the Prince of Company Promoters, and fired by Drake's buccaneering exploits, turned to the New World, hitherto under the heel of Spain. Dreams of galleons laden with gold and jewels stimulated the ambition of adventurous gallants, and quickened the nation's pulse. The love of travel became a portion of the Englishman's heritage. The Italian spirit had reached England in full force. The poetry and romances of Italy affected all the Elizabethan men of letters.

Shakespeare, in his "Merchant of Venice" and his other plays, plainly shows the Italian influence. In costume, in speech, and in furniture, it became the fas.h.i.+on to follow Italy. To Ascham it seemed like "the enchantment of Circe brought out of Italy to mar men's manners in England."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PANEL OF CARVED OAK.

ENGLISH; EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Showing interlaced strapwork.

(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

The result of this wave of fas.h.i.+on on the domestic furniture of England was to impart to it the elegance of Italian art combined with a national st.u.r.diness of character seemingly inseparable from English art at all periods. As the reign of Queen Elizabeth extended from the year 1558 to the year 1603, it is usual to speak of architecture and furniture of the latter half of the sixteenth century as Elizabethan.

A favourite design in Elizabethan woodwork is the interlaced strapwork (see ill.u.s.tration p. 68), which was derived from similar designs employed by the contemporary stonecarver, and is found on Flemish woodwork of the same period. The panel of a sixteenth-century Flemish virginal, carved in walnut, ill.u.s.trated, shows this form of decoration.

Grotesque terminal figures, half-human, half-monster, supported the front of the buffets, or were the supporting terminals of cornices. This feature is an adaptation from the Caryatides, the supporting figures used instead of columns in architecture, which in Renaissance days extended to woodwork. Table-legs and bed-posts swelled into heavy, acorn-shaped supports of ma.s.sive dimensions. Cabinets were sometimes inlaid, as was also the room panelling, but it cannot be said that at this period the art of marquetry had arrived at a great state of perfection in this country.

It is noticeable that in the rare pieces that are inlaid in the Late Tudor and Early Jacobean period the inlay itself is a sixteenth of an inch thick, whereas in later inlays of more modern days the inlay is thinner and flimsier. In the Flemish examples ivory was often used, and holly and sycamore and box seem to have been the favourite woods selected for inlay.

Take, for example, the mirror with the frame of carved oak, with scroll outline and narrow bands inlaid with small squares of wood, alternately light and dark. This inlay is very coa.r.s.ely done, and unworthy to compare with Italian marquetry of contemporary date, or of an earlier period. The uprights and feet of the frame, it will be noticed, are bal.u.s.ter-shaped. The gla.s.s mirror is of nineteenth-century manufacture.

The date carved upon the frame is 1603, the first year of the reign of James I., and it is stated to have come from Derby Old Hall.

The Court cupboard, also of the same date, begins to show the coming style of Jacobean ornamentation in the turning in the upright pillars and supports and the square bal.u.s.ter termination. The ma.s.sive carving and elaborate richness of the early Elizabethan period have given place to a more restrained decoration. Between the drawers is the design of a tulip in marquetry, and narrow bands of inlay are used to decorate the piece. In place of the chimerical monsters we have a portrait in wood of a lady, for which Arabella Stuart might have sat as model. The days were approaching when furniture was designed for use, and ornament was put aside if it interfered with the structural utility of the piece. The wrought-iron handle to the drawer should be noted, and in connection with the observation brought to bear by the beginner on genuine specimens in the Victoria and Albert Museum and other collections, it is well not to let any detail escape minute attention. Hinges and lock escutcheons and handles to drawers must not be neglected in order to acquire a sound working knowledge of the peculiarities of the different periods.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MIRROR.

Gla.s.s in oak frame with carved scroll outline and narrow bands inlaid with small squares of wood. The gla.s.s nineteenth century.

ENGLISH. DATED 1603.

(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COURT CUPBOARD, CARVED OAK.

ENGLISH. DATED 1603.

Decorated with narrow bands inlaid, and having inlaid tulip between drawers.

(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

In contrast with this specimen, the elaborately carved Court cupboard of a slightly earlier period should be examined. It bears carving on every available surface. It has been "restored," and restored pieces have an unpleasant fas.h.i.+on of suggesting that sundry improvements have been carried out in the process. At any rate, as it stands it is over-laboured, and entirely lacking in reticence. The elaboration of enrichment, while executed in a perfectly harmonious manner, should convey a lesson to the student of furniture. There is an absence of contrast; had portions of it been left uncarved how much more effective would have been the result! As it is it stands, wonderful as is the technique, somewhat of a warning to the designer to cultivate a studied simplicity rather than to run riot in a profusion of detail.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COURT CUPBOARD, CARVED OAK.

ABOUT 1580. (RESTORED.)

(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

Another interesting Court cupboard, of the early seventeenth century, shows the more restrained style that was rapidly succeeding the earlier work. This piece is essentially English in spirit, and is untouched save the legs, which have been restored.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By kind permission of T. E. Price Stretche, Esq._

COURT CUPBOARD, EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

With secret hiding-place at top.]

The table which is ill.u.s.trated (p. 78) is a typical example of the table in ordinary use in Elizabethan days. This table replaced a stone altar in a church in Shrops.h.i.+re at the time of the Reformation.

It was late in the reign of Queen Elizabeth that upholstered chairs became more general. Sir John Harrington, writing in 1597, gives evidence of this in the a.s.sertion that "the fas.h.i.+on of cus.h.i.+oned chayrs is taken up in every merchant's house." Wooden seats had hitherto not been thought too hard, and chairs imported from Spain had leather seats and backs of fine tooled work richly gilded and decorated. In the latter days of Elizabeth loose cus.h.i.+ons were used for chairs and for window seats, and were elaborately wrought in velvet, or were of satin embroidered in colours, with pearls as ornamentation, and edged with gold or silver lace.

The upholstered chair belongs more properly to the Jacobean period, and in the next chapter will be shown several specimens of those used by James I.

In Elizabethan panelling to rooms, in chimneypieces, doorways, screens such as those built across the end of a hall and supporting the minstrels' gallery, the wood used was nearly always English oak, and most of the thinner parts, such as that designed for panels and smaller surfaces, was obtained by splitting the timber, thus exhibiting the beautiful figure of the wood so noticeable in old examples.

RECENT SALE PRICES.[1]

s. d.

Chest, oak, with inlaid panels under arches, with caryatid figures carved in box-wood, English, temp. Elizabeth.

Christie, January 29, 1904. 40 9 0

Tudor mantelpiece, with elaborately carved jambs, panels, } brackets, sides, and cornice, 6 ft. by 7 ft. 3 in. high.} Herbert Wright, Ipswich, February 19, 1904 } } 155 0 0 Old oak panelling, in all about 60 ft. run and 6 ft. 6 in. } high, with 17 carved panels and 3 fluted pilasters } fitted in same, part being surmounted by a cornice. } Herbert Wright, Ipswich, February 19, 1904 }

Credence, walnut-wood, with a cupboard and drawer above and shelf beneath, the corners are returned, the central panel has carved upon it, in low relief, circular medallions, pierced steel hinges and lock, 36 in. wide, 50 in. high, early sixteenth century. Christie, May 6, 1904 346 0 0

Bedstead, Elizabethan, with panelled and carved canopy top, supported by fluted and carved pillars, inlaid and panelled back, with raised figures and flowers in relief, also having a carved panelled footboard. C. W.

Provis & Son, Manchester, May 9, 1904 22 10 0

Bedstead, oak Elizabethan, with carved back, dated 1560, and small cupboard fitted with secret sliding panel, and further having carved and inlaid panelled top with inlaid panels, the whole surmounted with heavy cornice.

C. W. Provis & Son, Manchester, May 9, 1904 33 0 0

Sideboard, Elizabethan old oak, 6 ft. 2 in. wide by 7 ft. 6 in. high, with carved canopy top; also fitted with gallery shelf, supported by lions rampant. C. W. Provis & Son, Manchester. May 9, 1904 60 0 0

[1] By the kindness of the proprietors of the _Connoisseur_ these items are given from their useful monthly publication, _Auction Sale Prices_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By kindness of T. E. Price Stretche, Esq._

ELIZABETHAN OAK TABLE.]